This December I took my preschoolers at PromiseLand through an advent study. In doing so, we searched into the words of the prophets. Through our search, the little ones learned that when God says something He means it and if He makes a promise He keeps it, and though powerful and mighty, God is also compassionate and generous.
God used the prophets to tell of the comings of His Son, and He used them to get the focus of His distracted people back on what He created them to do, which was to bring glory to His name. The words of these prophets in the Word of God serve to remind us that God still expects His own to bring glory to His name.
In His Word we see that we do not glorify His name through exalting ourselves in power and might over others. No, God expects His children to represent His image and reflect His character to others through compassion and generosity (Micah 6:8, Zechariah 7:9, James 1:27). He made this truth even more clear when He sent His Only Begotten Son, the Word made flesh.
Throughout the Old Testament and still today, we find the people of God distracted. We find them no longer focused on how they can be a blessing to others, but instead they are inwardly focused. Some, so much so, that when the Son of God was right in front of them, they could not look past themselves enough to see that in their presence stood the greatest blessing of God ever to be bestowed upon mankind.
As we close out each year, our culture usually turns inward. We search out and pinpoint the things that we simply do not like about our selves or our circumstances. We make this condemnation checklist and resound that by the power of our will we will change these outward things. How about this year we change our condemnation checklist into a blessing budget.
This year let us take inventory of our blessings and let us ask God to open our eyes to the needs of others and how we can use whatever is in our blessing budget to meet that need.
In Mark 6:34-43 we see how Jesus taught the disciples to use their blessing budget. Here we find the Son of Man teaching one of the many crowds that followed Him. He taught until it was late and the people were hungry. The disciples wanted to send the people away to fend for themselves, but that was not the plan of Christ. Jesus said, no you feed them.
It was then that the inventory of the blessing budget was being put together. In their blessing budget all they had were five loaves and two fish. How on earth could a budget of five loaves and two fish feed thousands? With man this would be impossible, but with God all things are possible. When we choose to blow our blessing budget, God chooses to blow our mind!
When we choose to see through eyes of compassion with a heart full of generosity, God has a way of supplying us with whatever we need to meet the need of another. We just have to step out in faith and trust Him.
Here in Morgan County, Alabama we have seen a need, and we are stepping out in faith to trust God to supply us with what we need to meet it.
In Matthew 9:35-36 we see the compassion of Christ as He looks upon the people. What He sees are people who are distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd. When we look into the faces of so many of our children in the public school system, so many who are in fatherless homes, so many who are stuck in the foster care program, so many who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and when we see the suicide of young teens scroll through our newsfeed, we also see people, children, who are distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
When we see the distressed and dispirited we no longer want to be guilty of being the distracted. We don’t want to be the ones that are so inwardly focused that we grieve the heart of God because we missed His Son (Matthew 25:31-46). We want to bring glory to His name by reflecting His character through compassion and generosity. Oh beloved, the words of Christ should still ring loud in our souls,
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Matthew 9:37-38
You can join us today.
Would you partner with us at First Priority Greater Decatur as we seek to bring these lost sheep home to their Shepherd?
Today put away that condemnation checklist and start taking inventory for that blessing budget, I guarantee you will discover that your cup runneth over.
Are you ready to give today? If so click here: Give Today
Our responsibility in the moment is to love, and the most tangible way to love is to give. ~ David Jeremiah